What if you break a hip (or leg, or whatever) during a pandemic?

The new coronavirus is rightly, and almost entirely, devouring news cycles. But even as COVID-19 swamps our attention and stretches the capacity of our health care institutions, those who might in “normal” times end up at UCHealth hospitals for other reasons are still coming. The SARS-CoV-2 virus hasn’t erased heart attacks, organ failures, cancers, injuries, or other illnesses and chronic conditions that need medical attention. The virus is, rather, an addition to and complicator of the many health problems people have anyway. A hypothetical example: a 75-year-old woman with a heart condition falls and breaks her hip. She needs emergency orthopedic surgery. An ambulance arrives, destination UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital on the Anschutz Medical Campus.